


magnets (you and me)

by OceanMyth



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Interventions, Mutual Pining, No Finale Kiss, Oblivious, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, all around, all parties are oblivious, but they'll come together regardless, no cave of two lovers kiss, no dobs kiss, no eip kiss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:13:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29464812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OceanMyth/pseuds/OceanMyth
Summary: They didn’t kiss in the Cave of Two Lovers.She’s not sure why that thought has been pulsing through her head for the past three days but it won’t leave her alone.There are other thoughts too, that won’t leave her alone, like the cold waxen pallor to Aang’s cheeks that wasn’t even there when she had first found him in the ice, like the way he only breaths at the very last possible second and the rattle in his lungs when he does. There are other thoughts that won’t leave her alone but every time she manages to scrub herself clear of the rest of her fears and worries, that single nebulous thought remains.They didn’t kiss in the Cave of Two Lovers, and Katara isn’t sure why that matters so much to her— kissing like that wouldn’t be something that friends even do— but it won’t leave her alone.Katara thinks about that, long and hard, and decides that it’s because she’s afraid that she’ll never be able to goof around with her best friend again. That she’d gladly take the awkward memory of a kiss between them over the threat of losing him forever.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Katara & Sokka (Avatar), Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Katara, Toph Beifong & Sokka
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31
Collections: Kataang Valentine's Bash 2021





	magnets (you and me)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Kataang Valentines Bash, prompt pair "Push & Pull"

They didn’t kiss in the Cave of Two Lovers. 

She’s not sure why that thought has been pulsing through her head for the past three days but it won’t leave her alone.

There are other thoughts too, that won’t leave her alone, like the cold waxen pallor to Aang’s cheeks that wasn’t even there when she had first found him in the ice, like the way he only breaths at the very last possible second and the rattle in his lungs when he does. There are other thoughts that won’t leave her alone but every time she manages to scrub herself clear of the rest of her fears and worries, that single nebulous thought remains.

They didn’t kiss in the Cave of Two Lovers, and Katara isn’t sure why that matters so much to her— kissing like that wouldn’t be something that friends even do— but it won’t leave her alone.

Katara thinks about that, long and hard, and decides that it’s because she’s afraid that she’ll never be able to goof around with her best friend again. That she’d gladly take the awkward memory of a kiss between them over the threat of losing him forever.

Aang wakes up, but the memory still won’t leave her alone. Strange, for a memory of an absence to be so presently in her mind. It haunts her when Aang leaves without a word, haunts her when they find him again and convince him that she—they— should be allowed to remain close.

The next time they come close to kissing is in a candlelit cave, a scarce few days after he finally opens his eyes in the cavernous underbelly of the Fire Nation ship. And Katara looks up into his grey eyes and they seem so calm and cool and unaffected by the heat around them— he’s so steady and certain and he’s leaning in close— and she can’t do it.

She wants to, for a burning moment, she wants to. It would be  _ so easy _ to press upwards and kiss Aang, and she thinks he’d probably kiss back, it feels like the right things that would happen in a moment like this-

But she doesn’t lean up and kiss him.

She thinks about kissing him on the cheek after they escape, once they’re on Appa with Sokka and Toph. But most of the magic has faded from the evening, and she decides not to. And that’s the end of it. It feels like she’s just made a momentous choice, like her world has shifted in some incalculable way, and she can’t quite pin it down. Katara tucks their almost-kiss next to the memory of the Cave of Two Lovers, and hopes that it won’t come to haunt her in the coming weeks.

It does and it doesn’t. Not because they get into trouble, like she’d worried—well they do get into trouble, but it’s a normal, familiar kind of trouble to them. A playful kind of trouble, some lighthearted distraction that they’ve sorely needed, that nobody can say they didn’t earn. But there’s something that’s changed or changing between her and Aang, and she doesn’t know if it’d be better or worse if she’d taken the time to close the distance as they danced.

A thousand little moments come and go, before the next shift in their relationship— a lingering touch while unpacking Appa’s saddle for the night, Aang offering to brush her hair after the wind has snarled it into hopeless knots, Katara leaning forwards over the side of Appa’s saddle to talk to Aang for the sake of hearing his voice. Little, innocuous moments that feel like they’re shifting something deep in the structure of their relationship.

Katara has spent most of her life around glaciers. She knows what it looks like when one calves, and she’s afraid.

Then Aang calls her  _ ‘beautiful’ _ , in Jang Hui, and there’s another shift. Well, he doesn’t exactly tell  _ her _ , and the word is not exactly beautiful, but it’s close enough that she can’t stop thinking about it, until she tucks it away, next to the other memories. A larger crack compared to the rest— like their relationship is hiding something beautiful of it’s own deep inside, and while the last time an iceberg cracked it brought everything good into her life, she can’t trust that it will be the same this time. 

The moments begin to build, and the cracks begin to splinter, and Katara begins to pull away. She can’t bear to stay so close to him, not when she’s so uncertain of what’s happening— she needs to sort things out and the world is moving so fast and she can’t keep up.

It’s hard to avoid him as much as she wants to. Appa’s back is only so big, and their campsites are not much bigger. She takes to doing whatever chores she can that let her leave, even ones that she’d normally make Sokka do— fetching water, collecting firewood, packing Appa’s saddle back up— this backfires on her in two ways. Aang tries to help almost immediately after she begins a task, and it offers Sokka and Toph entirely too much free time.

Katara hates feeling like she’s the only responsible member of the group— and her temper frays quickly. After her fight with Toph, she feels more unsteady cracks form throughout the group— even Sokka seems withdrawn from her, and she buries herself more deeply in her chores than before. It’s isolating, and even as she begins to spend more time with Aang again, she finds herself trying to make up for her harsh actions and words, and return everything to normal. 

Then Hama happens, and Katara can’t reach out anymore. 

She doesn’t want to hurt anyone, not even by accident, and she isn’t sure how far this ‘bloodbending’ goes. She’s afraid to find out.

It doesn’t take long for Aang to notice something’s wrong. 

It never does take him long to pick up when something’s bothering her— she’s not sure why, but it’s nice to have someone always looking out for her. He’s such a good friend. She’s not sure how he can stand to be friends with her anymore, but he is, and she’s grateful for it. It’s probably selfish of her to be grateful, that he hasn’t wisened up and told the group to leave her behind.

He confronts her the night after they take down Hama. 

Katara cooks dinner as quickly as she can, and she sits on the other side of the fire from the rest of her friends. She knows it’s not exactly rational to try and keep all that physical distance between herself and her family, but it soothes some fragile and wild part of her that whispers  _ she’s not safe _ — it’s not safe for others to be around her and she’s not safe around others—and so she can’t bring herself to stop.

It’s a quiet kind of confrontation, certainly nothing like what had happened with Hama— it feels like that’s all her mind can think about, and she’s sick of it. She spent the whole morning trying to pretend the night before hadn’t happened. But up in the clouds it’s easy to trick herself into believing that it’s not the water vapor in the clouds that tingle and prickle along her senses but Appa and her friends.

Aang comes over to her gently, like she’s some frightened animal. Easily spooked, ready to flee. Katara remembers what Aang was like on some of those very early nights he spent with them and thinks that he might be onto something.

  
  
“Hey Katara.” He’s nonchalant, marbles clicking around in his hand. There’s no airbending to it this time, and the rhythmic swish-click-roll is nice… yet it’s also a little annoying. Katara digs her heels into the ground and resolutely ignores him. Aang sighs.

“Avoiding this isn’t going to make it easier you know.” Katara sighs, and bites her lip. She knows avoiding it isn’t going to make it easier. Avoiding it isn’t really the problem here though— everything else is— the way nobody’s even said anything the way she seems to be the only one who thinks that anything’s changed, the only one aware of the potential danger the group could be in.

“Aren’t— aren’t you worried I could contaminate you somehow?”

“What?”

Katara looks down at her hands, before closing her empty palms up tight enough to draw blood. “After I— Once you bloodbend, it creeps inside you, and then you can’t get rid of it. It’s like a sickness, a poison. Even if I can’t bend blood without the full moon, I can still feel it at night when everything is still. And- Aang, you’re far too  _ good  _ to be a bloodbender-” she stops before she says ‘like me’ but she can’t help thinking it. “I couldn’t— what if I—I don’t think I could bear it, if I poisoned you with this.”

Aang shakes his head, and slides closer to her, wrapping one hand around hers. She can feel his pulse under her fingertips, and a repulsed shiver runs up the back of her spine. Katara shakes his hands away and draws her knees up to her chest.

“Please, Aang. I can’t— I can feel your heartbeat, when you’re this close to me.” She doesn’t need to say that she’s afraid to touch him for him to be able to see it in her face. Aang’s a good friend. She doesn’t want to hurt him.

“Fine. If I leave you alone though, will you promise me one thing?” She nods. Anything to keep him safe, to keep him away from her. “I know there’s a difference between you and Hama— I’m not sure you do. Remember that you’re not the same person she is. Please remember that you are Katara of the Southern Water Tribe and you get to choose your own path.”   
  


Aang stands up and turns to leave, but he leaves her with one last thought. “And Katara—I might not know what bloodbending feels like, but I do understand what it’s like to worry about losing control and hurting everyone.”

Katara thinks that she feels something intangible crack and shatter between them. And instead of falling forwards together, she’s falling back and away and alone.

He doesn’t talk to her again that evening, even when she goes to groom Appa— something that Aang normally takes care of himself, something that the two of them do together when they want to talk with whatever small shred of privacy is to be had. After Katara turns in for the night, she rolls over in her bedroll, and looks out into the darkness of the world. 

It feels like the universe is conspiring to push her and Aang apart, throwing one hurdle at them after another, hurdles she doesn’t know how to overcome, and she’s not strong enough to pull them back together.

* * *

Things don’t get better in the morning. Katara wakes up and makes Sokka and Toph help her pack up the campsite— they serve as ferries between her and Aang. She picks up the various items lying around the campsite and hands them off, Sokka and Toph take them over to Appa and Aang tucks them away. Nobody talks the entire time.

Well, Sokka does try to crack a couple jokes, but all of them fall flat, and eventually he stops trying. From then on, they pack Appa without a word. When they get to the invasion’s launch site, things don’t get any better.

The first night is fine, though Aang doesn’t sleep a wink.

The day after is harder, and Katara knows it will only get more difficult from there— there’s only so many things you can do to avoid someone when you’re two of the only four humans for miles around. She decides to climb down to the cove to practice her waterbending. Since Toph decides to take Aang for the day, it’s easy to pretend that she just doesn’t hear the shouting, and when it comes time to eat dinner, she just decides to turn in early.

Aang doesn’t sleep again that night, and Katara is starting to worry about him. She doesn’t say anything though, not sure he’d even listen to her if she did.

The third day comes, and Toph and Sokka decide to run interference. She knew she shouldn’t have left them alone together— but it was the only choice she had at the time, if she wanted to continue to avoid Aang.

Which is why she’s now stuck alone in a cave with him.

It had been Sokka who’d convinced her to check out the cave, saying that it’d be a good, dry place to store materials for the invasion when the rest of their forces arrived. He’d asked her to leave her water-pouch outside and she’d foolishly agreed, dropping it onto the grass next to the entrance without a second thought— she’s not sure why. Maybe it was because she wasn’t thinking straight, maybe because she trusts Sokka.

Before she’d realized what was happening, Sokka sunk into the earth and vanished, and there was a thick layer of rock sealing off the entrance. Then Aang had dropped from the ceiling, and she’d tried to catch him— he was looking a little confused and she knew that his reflexes were off. Thankfully, Sokka had left them with a single torch, and she could see where he was about to land.

She’d then helped him sit against the side of the cave and retreated as far as the cramped space would allow.

“Right. Sugar Queen. Twinkle Toes. Both of you have been insufferable since we got into the Fire Nation, and I’m not letting you out of that cave until you talk out whatever’s gotten into you.” Toph’s voice echoes through the long tube she’s bent in the rock that she’d used to seal the cave off with. Katara frowns, and looks desperately around the small rounded room for a way out.

Her eyes skip over Aang who has his head tucked between his legs, muttering something to himself about losing training time. Katara hopes that he didn’t hit his head while being bent into the cave.

Bending.

“What if we just bend our way out?” Katara challenges, and Toph snorts.

“Go ahead and try. I’m not sure you realize how thick this stone is— it’ll take you hours to slice your way out with sweat alone, and we made sure that neither of you had any other bendable fluids on you.” Katara looks desperately over to Aang.

“And before you even think about it, he couldn’t bend his way out of a sack like this, Avatar or not.” Toph’s brisk and businesslike tone does little to conceal her worry, and Katara winces.

“Fine, we’ll talk it out.” Aang looks up from his hands at her as Toph closes off the tube to give them privacy. 

Katara’s never thought of bending as something you can do smugly, but now she thinks that might have been an oversight on her part. She sighs, and turns to Aang. He looks at her, and the circles under his eyes  _ are _ getting concerning. He smiles at her, and it’s bright and happy to see her and maybe it’s just because he’s too sleep deprived to hold on to his anger, but Katara feels her resolution to stay away melting.

“Hey Katara.”

“Hey Aang,” she says, finger smoothing over the cloth of her skirt and better settling it around her, before reaching up to comb her fingers through the ends of her hair.

There’s a moment of silence, and Aang sighs.

“Do you know what we have to do to get out?”

“Not really no. Toph said we’ve been acting weird though so…” Katara trails off, and hopes that Aang has the answers she’s looking for. Aang nods, and then shakes his head and tries to get up only to fall over. 

“I think that getting thrown in here made me a little more dizzy than I thought. Um. Well. How do we go back to acting normal enough to be let out?”

“I don’t know.”

“How about I pay more attention to why you’re so caught up in your head, and give you space when you ask for it?” Katara shakes her head.

“If— if I’m being honest, I’m not really sure you did anything wrong, Aang. It was all my stupid overreaction,” she says, feeling her her face get hot. She tucks it into her knees to hide the redness, and the tears that prickle in the corners of her eyes. “I’ll try to actually listen to you and not get so caught up in my own head.. Deal?” 

“Deal.” She didn’t notice when it happened, but there’s a warm hand on her knee. She looks up and Aang is there, offering a hug. She holds him tightly, and buries her face in the crook of his neck.

It’s nice to hug Aang again. She didn’t realize how much she’d missed it in the past few days of avoiding him. She pulls back enough to look him square in the eyes.

“Aang. You’re my  _ best friend _ , and I want you to know that. I don’t want to keep letting stupid things like that push us apart, okay?”

* * *

The next two days go smoothly. 

Katara can’t really remember the first half of the invasion day. She knows that things are going on, but her adrenaline and anxiety turn her brain into a slick slate that nothing wants to stick to. She knows that her brother has a presentation and she can remember that with a stunning clarity— strange, since so little of what Sokka says matters enough that she remembers it on a day to day basis— but there’s a thousand different things to prepare and she’s responsible for far too many, with the way her hands are shaking.

She does remember Aang shaving his hair. Her stomach does a funny swoop after she sees him back in his robes with his head shaved once again and there’s no way that something so weird for her wouldn’t stick in her memory. Katara tucks it away alongside every other memory since Aang woke up from his coma.

Then things are a blur again until the actual invasion begins. 

They’ve come up for air one last time before the attack. Katara has the feeling that she’ll remember the sticky salt breeze and the clear sparkling blue of the water years into the future.

Aang lands on the deck of the sub, and Katara immediately makes her way over to him. Behind them, Appa splashes down into the water, letting out a massive sigh. 

“So...this is it, huh?” Aang muses, shaking out his hands nervously and stretching his fingers reflexively, and Katara wants to hug him more than she’s ever wanted to hug someone in her life.

“Are you ready for the Fire Nation to know the Avatar is alive?”

Aang nods. “I'm ready.” Sokka, reaches out and clasps Aang’s arm before pulling him into a hug. Katara can’t help herself any more, hugging both Aang and her brother— which isn’t what she really wanted to do, but she’s worried about him too, even if Sokka’s a little ripe.

Toph sighs before joining the hug, as if she’s trying to pretend she didn’t want to, but her squeeze is fierce and says everything she’s not comfortable saying out loud. “I hope you kick some serious Fire Lord butt out there, Twinkle Toes.”

“Everyone listen up,” Katara looks up from over Toph's shoulder, letting the others go, before looking back up at Dad. 

“The next time we resurface, it'll be on the beaches. So stay alert, and fight smart. Now break time's over, back in the subs— Katara, take Appa down.” Katara gives an acknowledging nod and bends her way over to Appa. She thinks she sees a disappointed look flicker across Aang’s face, but she’s not sure, as he takes off from the submarine deck.

The submersion is quick, and she doesn’t get more than a moment’s glance at Aang’s blue glider overhead before she goes under. Katara swallows, and turns her focus to maintaining the bubble of air around Appa’s head. No matter how much she wants to, she can’t stare at the surface, hoping for another fleeting glimpse of Aang.

There’s a thread of disappointment, that she won’t be able to see Aang one last time before the battle, that she won’t be able to hug him as tightly as she can and wish him luck and make him promise to come back safe. 

She hopes that she’ll be able to find him when this is all over.

* * *

The next time Katara is able to breathe and think about her relationship with Aang is… not what she would have hoped it would be. She hasn’t let it cross her mind since Zuko’s joined their group— she needed a clear mind and a lot of focus to make sure she’s always aware of where the traitor prince is.

He’s not to be trusted.

Especially around Aang.

So the first time she actually gets to think about herself and her best friend is when they’ve hidden on Ember Island.

It’s not that Ember Island isn’t lovely— it is— it’s just that the play they’ve come to watch is none of those things, and Katara finds herself feeling worse and worse about herself as the night progresses. Aang seems to be feeling worse about himself too, if the way he disappears from his seat partway through the night says anything.

She gets up to find him not long after— she can’t stay to watch anymore.

“Are you all right?” Katara comes up behind Aang and debates putting her hand on his shoulder. It doesn’t seem worth it to bother him, but she wants to help. She’s just not sure whether her help would be accepted.

“No, I'm not! I hate this play— it’s wrong and embarrassing and-” She takes a step back in surprise. Aang rarely shouts, and he’s nearly trembling in rage. Katara isn’t sure what to do, and she lets her hand drop to her side, scrunching up the material of her dress in her fist.

“ I know it's upsetting, but it sounds like you're overreacting.” The moment she says the words she wishes she could take them back. It’s just that— the play hurts her as much as it’s hurting him, and why can’t he see that? And- and then everyone had gone on to agree with it, and her play counterpart wound up with  _ Zuko _ of all people— she doesn’t know why it bothers her but it does, though it’s a slight sting compared to everything else that had been gotten wrong— and there’s something aching in her heart, seeing Aang this upset.

“Overreacting? If I hadn't blocked my chakra, I'd probably be in the Avatar State right now!” His knuckles are white on the railing and he still hasn’t turned to look at her yet.

“Aang.” Aang sighs and slumps over the side of the railing. 

A small child comes hurtling out of nowhere, chasing a harassed looking iguana parrot. It breaks the tension between them, but Katara watches Aang withdraw into himself and wishes the tension was still there.

“I’m going to go check in with Zuko and Toph— but I’m not sure I’ll be going back in to watch the second half of the play so… I’ll see you back at the house if nothing else, I guess.” Katara watches Aang leave, and wishes that she was a little braver, and could reach out to pull him back to her and make him tell her what’s wrong. 

He avoids her the next day, choosing to focus on training with Zuko— and the day after that she avoids him, and then it’s the day of the comet— and Aang’s not there.

He’s gone.

And Katara is once again left hoping that she’ll be able to find him when this is all over.n This time, though, there’s a thread of dread curling among her ribs, and she once again finds herself wishing that she could trade an awkward memory of a kiss for the guarantee that her best friend will come home to her safe and sound.

She didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye.

* * *

The days after he fights Sozin pass in a blur for Aang. The one thing he knows is that Katara scarcely leaves his side, though she does spend a lot of time making sure Zuko’s lightning wound is healing well. It’s not quite the round-the-clock vigil she’d arranged for him after Ba Sing Se though.

Whenever he turns, she’s there. 

It’s nice to have a friendly face nearby all the time. Most of the officials and bureaucrats that he has to deal with while Zuko’s recuperating aren’t nearly so nice or nice to look at. 

On the day after Zuko’s coronation, Aang finds the courage to slip a hand into hers. 

She smiles at him, and squeezes his hand.

The day they all congregate at the Jasmine Dragon is the day after Zuko and King Kuei jointly announce the newly signed peace agreement between the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation. The first official day after the war. Aang just wishes that more people made it through to commemorate the day with them— there’s too much empty space in the room. He can feel the echoes of where lives used to be.

Aang slips out while everyone squabbles with Sokka over something trivial.

The sun is starting to set, and he wants to be able to remember this day fondly. The war ended. The world kept turning.

Katara’s presence is silent but not surprising, when he thinks about it. He turns to grin at her. She leans in for a hug.

“I’m glad to be here with you,” Katara whispers into his ear, and Aang’s face is much warmer than it had been a second ago— but that makes sense, her warm breath is tickling his ear, a stark contrast to the chill of the evening as the sun begins to set.

Before them, the horizon glows molten gold and cherry blossom pink, with hazy feathers of lilac purple clouds at the edge between day and night. It’s the prettiest sunset he’s seen in months, but a voice in the back of his head that reminds him that Katara is more beautiful by far. And when he turns to look at her, the voice is right.

Katara looks radiant in the golden glow of the setting sun. Aang turns away with a lump in his throat, but— he reaches out and takes her hand. The smile she gives him is a thousand times more lovely than the sunset.

“Where are you going?”

“I need to go back to the Fire Nation with Zuko. Several of his ministers aren’t too happy with some of the changes he’s making. They were all fine with ending the war, if a bit grumbly, but some of them are really upset that he’s shutting down arms production— especially ones with a personal stake in producing weapons— and there’s rumors of trying to get his Agni Kai with Azula challenged. He’s hoping that my presence will either quiet the rumors or force their hand now, before they have a chance to gather more support.”

“Oh,”she says quietly. Katara isn’t looking at him anymore, and Aang doubts the floor tiles of the balcony are half as interesting as she’s pretending. He steps forwards again, and takes her other hand.

“I’ll be back soon, if you’ll wait for me,” he offers, tucking a loose piece of hair behind her ear, and then taking her hand once again. Katara squeezes his hands, and then pulls him into a hug.

“I’ll always wait for you, Aang.”

Aang would have kissed her then, if he could. 

Instead he gives her a smile, and lets go of her hand to head back inside.

**Author's Note:**

> this is part one of two-- part two will be up at some point soon. tell me what you think in the comments, or on tumblr @justoceanmyth!


End file.
